THE PRINCE OF WALES.
The affairs of the Prince of Wales again demanded the attention of parliament. He had not mended his ways since 1787; his creditors pressed him and put executions in his house. He could no longer reckon on the support of the opposition in any application to parliament, for he had voted against them on the seditious publications bill in 1792. In order to escape from his difficulties he promised the king to marry Caroline, daughter of the Duke of Brunswick. She was brought over to England by Lord Malmesbury, and though at his first interview with her the prince did not conceal his disgust, the marriage took place on April 8. Pitt brought a royal message to the commons requesting in humble terms that they would enable the prince to pay his debts and would make a provision for him and the princess. He stated the prince's debts at about £630,000, and proposed that the princess should have a jointure of £50,000 a year, that the prince's income should be increased by £65,000, making it £125,000 a year, exclusive of the duchy of Cornwall, and that £25,000 a year should be deducted for the interest on his debts, and the revenues of the duchy appropriated for the gradual payment of them. Grey moved that the increase should only be £40,000. Fox reminded the house that in 1787 the prince promised that he would not again apply to parliament for payment of his debts, and suggested that the augmentation of £65,000 and the income of the duchy should be used for the purpose. Pitt's proposals were carried. The princess, a coarse-minded and giddy young woman, was shamefully treated by her husband, and after the birth of their daughter, the Princess Charlotte, in January, 1796, they finally separated.
For the prosecution of the war parliament voted 100,000 seamen, including marines, and £14,500,000 for army expenses; the total supplies were about £27,500,000. Ten new taxes were imposed, one of them on hair-powder at twenty-one shillings a head, which was calculated at £210,000; and a loan of £18,000,000 was effected. With this year began a period of difficulty in raising money and the loan was only obtained at the total rate of £4 16s. 2d. per cent. In February Pitt hoped to prevent Prussia from making peace with France, and to induce the king to renew the war by the grant of another subsidy. Grenville, who was convinced that no reliance could be placed on Prussia, objected and threatened to resign if Pitt persisted in his plan. He desired a close alliance with Austria, and believed that the grant of a subsidy to Prussia would alienate the courts of Vienna and St. Petersburg. Pitt would not give way, and Grenville promised to keep his intended resignation a secret until the end of the session. He privately announced his resignation to the king, who, though he had at first been opposed to a Prussian subsidy, was then on Pitt's side, for he was discouraged by the ill-success of Austria. Pitt's project came to naught; for on April 5 Frederick William made a treaty with France at Basle, by which he surrendered the Prussian territories on the left bank of the Rhine. Secret articles provided that if France kept those territories he should be indemnified elsewhere. Grenville continued in office; Pitt had cause to rejoice that he was saved from a serious mistake, and the threatened disruption of the cabinet remained a secret.[264]
George himself had advised Grenville in December, 1794, to persuade Austria to renew the war by granting her a subsidy or a loan. His advice was in accordance with Grenville's own wishes. An arrangement with Catherine of Russia determined the Austrian emperor to carry on the war, with the intention of indemnifying himself at the expense of Bavaria and Venice, if he was unable to recover the Netherlands and conquer Lorraine and Alsace, and England had to find him money. By a convention signed on May 4 the government guaranteed a loan of £4,600,000 to be raised in London, to enable him to employ an army of 200,000 men. Defensive treaties were also concluded with Russia and Austria, and a triple alliance was formed in virtue of which Russia sent subsidies to Austria; for Catherine would take no part in the war by land. The imperial loan, which in 1798 became a charge on the consolidated fund, was raised at the rate of 7½ per cent. It was unsuccessfully opposed by Fox, who argued against the general policy of making grants to foreign powers, whether by way of loans or subsidies, and pointed out that the only real difference between a loan and a subsidy was that, in the case of a loan England would not be able to get rid of the payment, whereas a monthly subsidy could be stopped if the contract was broken.
In Germany the war was not marked by any great event. France was much distressed by domestic troubles. Public credit failed; and Pitt, speaking on Grey's motion for peace, argued that France was near the end of her resources. Food was scarce and half Paris was only kept alive by distributions of bread and meat at low prices. The jacobins of Paris were crushed by the thermidoriens, and in the south-east a sanguinary movement of the enemies of the republic, the "white terror," pursued its course unchecked. In August a new constitution was adopted of a far less democratic character than that of 1793; the executive was vested in a directory of five and the legislative in two assemblies. An insurrection in Paris on October 5 was quelled mainly by the fire of a few cannon under the command of Bonaparte, and the revolution assumed an organised and settled form. Three years of war had brought Austria also to a state of exhaustion. Active operations, therefore, did not begin until late. Luxemburg surrendered after a blockade; and in the autumn Jourdan and Pichegru led two armies across the Rhine at different points. Jourdan drove the Austrians back and invested Mainz; Pichegru occupied Mannheim. Clairfait, however, forced Jourdan to abandon the siege of Mainz and cut the two French generals off from one another. Mannheim was retaken and both the French armies were pushed back across the Rhine.
A LOST OPPORTUNITY.
In the war on the Italian frontier the British fleet in the Mediterranean bore some part. In Hood's absence it was commanded by Admiral Hotham, a distinguished officer, though lacking in dash and resolution. The French threatened Corsica with their Toulon fleet. Hotham engaged them on March 13 and 14, and cut off their two rearmost ships, but in Nelson's opinion lost an opportunity of destroying the whole fleet. The attempt on Corsica, however, was abandoned. Both fleets were reinforced; for the watch on Brest was slackly kept and six ships were allowed to leave the port and sail to Toulon. Another engagement in Hyères bay on July 13 only resulted in the destruction of one French ship, and was another lost opportunity. The command of the sea, which would have carried with it the control of the Italian states, was not secured. Meanwhile an Austrian army, acting with the Sardinians and relying on the co-operation of the British fleet, forced the French to evacuate Vado. The two armies faced one another, the Austrians waiting until the French should be compelled to retire by want of provisions; for as they were cut off from Genoa they depended on supplies by sea. Hotham detached Nelson with a small squadron to intercept their supplies and co-operate with the Austrians. He performed his duty with characteristic energy, but the ships which Hotham allowed him were too few for the work he had to do. The French army was strongly reinforced and was supplied by coasting vessels. The allies were totally defeated in the battle of Loano on November 23. The Austrians retreated beyond the Apennines, and the French had no further difficulty in obtaining provisions.
QUIBERON.
Before the end of 1794 Pitt was persuaded by the Count de Puisaye, a leader of the Breton Chouans, to send an expedition to support them. The expeditionary force was to consist of French emigrants headed by the Count of Artois, the youngest brother of Louis XVI. Emigrants were enlisted in England and from the force lately serving on the Rhine, and the government supplied arms and money. It was hoped that an unexpected descent on the coast would enable the royalists in the west to gain an immediate success, which was to be followed up by an invasion of a British force under Lord Moira. The plan became known, and in June it was necessary to act at once. The first body of emigrants, about 3,500 men, under Puisaye and Hervilly, with large supplies of all kinds and specially of arms for future recruits, sailed on the 16th in a squadron commanded by Sir John Warren. The Brest fleet was on the watch for them, and Warren sent for help to Lord Bridport, then in command of the channel fleet. Bridport caught the French, who were inferior in strength, off the Ile de Groix and captured three of their line of battle, but allowed the rest to escape into L'Orient. On the 27th the emigrants were landed on the peninsula of Quiberon and, with some help from the squadron, took the fortress of Penthièvre which commanded it. A large number of Chouans joined them and arms were distributed among the peasantry.
Puisaye and Hervilly quarrelled. Time was wasted, and Hoche, who was in command in Brittany, drove in the Chouans from their advanced posts and shut the whole force up in the peninsula. They made an attempt to break out on July 16; Hervilly was wounded and his troops retreated under cover of the fire from British gunboats. A second party landed under Sombreuil. More quarrelling ensued and then treachery, for Hervilly had enlisted some who were republicans at heart. These men betrayed their companions, and with their help Hoche stormed the fort of Penthièvre, and fell on the royalists in the peninsula. Many were slaughtered; others fled. It blew hard, and for a time the British ships could do little for the fugitives. At last they were able to take off Puisaye and some 3,500 others. Sombreuil and about a thousand under him were cut off, and laid down their arms. Sombreuil was tried and executed at Vannes, and over 700 were shot in batches on successive days in a field near Auray. The fugitives were landed on the islands of Houat and Hædik which were covered by the squadron. Then the Count of Artois with a third division of the expedition and a body of British troops appeared, took possession of the Ile d'Yeu, and seemed about to cross over to the mainland to co-operate with the Vendeans. However nothing further was done of any importance, and in October the troops were embarked for England. The Vendeans, who had hoped in vain to receive help, and to be headed by Artois, were again crushed, and the only result of this ill-planned and deplorable expedition was the ruin of the royalist cause in the west.